Small birds of interest

Hello

A much calmer day of weather today and still some great birds to be seen in the county.

The Dartford Warbler was still at Duston Mill today together with two Stonechats and there are some super pictures of this bird in circulation (sadly not from me though!). A Raven was seen in flight there too.

Birds at Pitsford Reservoir today again included the Great Northern Diver, an adult Yellow-legged Gull and Common Sandpiper all in the southern section. Birds north of the causeway included a Great White Egret, a Redshank and still the partly white Reed Bunting at the Old Scaldwell Road feeding station.

A drake Goosander was on the River Nene at Weston Mill, Northampton, a Ruff was at Summer Leys LNR this afternoon and the adult Whooper Swan was conveniently close to the Navigation Inn near Cosgrove in the south of the county.

Singles of Cattle Egret and Great White Egret were at Irthlingborough Lakes and Meadows reserve at Ditchford Pits, two adult Caspian Gulls were at Hollowell Reservoir early this afternoon and at least forty Bramblings were still attracted to seed at Harrington Airfield.

Some garden ringing on the outskirts of Northampton today provided a Siskin, a Reed Bunting, two Goldfinches and six Lesser Redpolls. One of the Redpolls was an aberrantly-plumaged bird that was particularly eye-catching.

Details have come through of a Belgium-ringed Blackcap that was controlled at Pitsford Reservoir on 8th October 2021. This male bird was originally caught and ringed on 6th September 2020 at Sint Huibrechts-Hern, Limburg, Belgium when assessed as a first year. It is difficult to speculate where this bird had been between these dates and where it's potential breeding and wintering region might be, the distance between the two sites is 466km with Pitsford lying WNW of the original ringing location.

Regards

Neil M

Partly-white Lesser Redpoll.

Blue Tit courtesy
of John Tilly.

Map depicting two
sites associated with
the Belgium-ringed Blackcap
courtesy of Nick Wood.